On April 6, the Denver Planning Board will hold a hearing on the policy, put forward by CPD, which oversaw an advisory committee that included for-profit developers, affordable housing advocates and community representatives.
Under the proposal, developers will know how much they'll owe in terms of affordable housing based on a flexible formula that's affected by whether a development's units are for sale or rent, whether it's in a high-cost or typical market, and at which income level the units are affordable. The proposal also includes incentives for developers to opt in to the affordable housing requirements; under state law, municipalities must provide developers with opt-outs, such as allowing them to pay a fee in lieu of building the required affordable units.
"I think that legislation like this should not be one and done, because the markets are so dynamic that we will need to come back and revisit some of the incentives in the next few years to make sure this is delivering the numbers of units that the city wants and that we’re not constricting development," says David Zucker, CEO ofZucker thinks that the city will need to add better incentives to persuade developers to build affordable-housing units.